I couldn’t resist buying these Splitrock today. I’m not sure if it is Pleiospilos species possibly Pleiospilos Nelii. Can anyone confirm?
Below are baby Kalanchoe tubiflora grown from leaflets found on the garden floor of a large home improvement store back in February. I had to save them! They were so tiny when I found them… Now they are about half an inch tall.
Although it was not as warm today as yesterday, I took some of my plants outside to start hardening them off and get them under some natural light.
I noticed that one of the Coleus that I just received (Coleus ‘Japanese Giant’) is already starting to bloom. Something tells me that I’ll have to keep a watchful eye on this plant so it doesn’t flower until the end of the season.
I took cuttings from Forsythia branches that one of my coworker had, dipped the cuts in rooting hormone, and placed it in 50/50 potting soil & perlite. I then used clear drinking cups to act as mini greenhouses.
Hopefully in a few year, I’ll have blooms like this.
Contrary to what the weather-forecaster said, it didn’t rain and was actually a very nice day. I took advantage of sun and did some yard work in the front yard.
Our house is the white one on the right and that’s our front yard. The tan house on the left is the one I’m planning to buy.
I wanted to see how backyard looks after the rains, so I took Kelly (our dog) and my camera and went to our neighbor’s house to check it out. I took more photos and I’ll post those later.
It was filled with weeds and parts of the yard had standing water. Once I buy the house, I think the first thing I have to do is build a drainage canal or something like that. The yard was not as big as I thought it was, but it’s still a good size. Seeing it in person is totally a different experience than seeing photos of it.
I also took advantage of the nice weather and set up a little work area on the grass to plant the Coleus that I ordered. I’m using 18 oz. SoloGrips drinking cups as pots.
It think this might be the first time they got be out under the sun. Until we get warmer weather, I’ll bring them out during the day and back in during the evenings.
Here are a few of my Coleus babies I have growing in my bedroom.
Coleus ‘Twirl-a-whirl’ (Last years “Mama” plant) + (Cuttings and Hybrids)
The larger plant on top (of the above right photo) are cuttings I took from the mama plant on the above left photo. During the winter, it has lost it’s swirling petticoat leaf shape and turned greenish orange. It will most likely return to it’s darker swirling leave once it returns outdoors.
The two cups on the bottom (of the photo above right) contain seedlings from the same mother plant as the above cuttings. Two are almost a pure chartreuse while one is chartreuse with a purplish vain. The one on the bottom right is a kaleidoscope of green, burgundy and reds.
Coleus ‘Dark Star’ (Last years “Mama” plant) + (Hybrids)
Coleus ‘Dark Star’ hybrids grown from seeds harvested from the mama plant on the left.
Coleus ‘Rustic Orange’ (Last years “Mama” plant) + (Cuttings)
This cutting (of the above right photo) barely made it… I had it overwintering at work and it died back to almost nothing. I brought it home, took new cuttings (with leave smaller than half an inch) dipped it in rooting hormone and planted them directly in moist perlite. It has really sprung back to life!
It’ll be interesting to see how all these turn out, especially the hybrids.
Our first Poppy blooms of the year!!! These measure about 5 inches across.
The Columbines next to the Poppies has gotten a lot bigger this year. This flower is also about 5 inches across.
A view from below
As I’m looking through today’s TV schedule, I noticed a new gardening show that premieres today called ‘The Dirt on Gardening‘. It airs tonight at 7:30pm PST (and replays at 10:30pm) on DIY Network (DirecTV channel 230). Looks like it’s a Q&A type of show.
I missed carpool because I worked a little late, so I had to ride the BART, then take a city link bus to get to Vallejo. I got home around 8:45pm and was so tired. Once I walked in the house, I saw a package from Rosy Dawn Gardens. YEAY!!! … My Coleus…. I took photos, but they are still in my camera. I’ll post them later today.
Before I post them, I wanted to show photos of the shelves I added in my bedroom to grow seedlings and overwinter cuttings. This photo was taken about a month ago.
Below is a new photo of the bottom shelf that mostly houses my Coleus. Some are grown from seeds that I collected last year and some are overwintered cuttings. Click on the photo to see some notes I added on with flickr.
A few weeks ago, my coworker Purr was telling me that she wanted to get some vermicompost (composted worm poop).
Last night, I decided to really read the label of an eco-friendly plant food called Terracycle, that I bought about a month ago. To my surprise, it is made of vermicomposted organic matter. In other word it’s like Worm Poop Tea that you spray on the plant’s foliage or water it into the soil. One thing that attracted me to this product is that they reuse old soda bottles. That’s why some look like Coke bottles and others Pepsi or Aquafina.
I decided to surprise Purr and get her a bottle to try. As I was looking for it, I saw some Lithops, which were some succulents that I’ve always wanted, so I bought two 2-inch pots. Hmm, maybe this is a start of another collection.